Editor's Notebook

By ART CULLEN

Reading the obituary page makes a guy nervous as he is about to turn 59 in May. 61. 64. 67. And then there was Prince, 57, the artist formerly known as someone else. I got home from work and turned on the TV news to see what happened in the world. The only thing that happened was that Prince died at Paisley Park up in the Twin Cities. No strife in the Mideast, no action on Wall Street, no Russian jets circling our ships in the Persian Gulf.

BY ART CULLEN

A friend in the Iowa Senate who has been the unfortunate target of many of our missives on water quality emailed Monday to say he believes we will get our wish: There will be no massive water quality bill to pass in this session of the legislature because of difference between Democratic and Republican proposals in the Senate and House respectively, neither of which agree with Gov. Terry Branstad’s proposal.

What a relief.

Storm Lake City Manager Jim Patrick is closer to the fact than the Census Bureau: The City Beautiful’s population is probably around 13,500 and not the Census Bureau’s estimate of about 10,000. Patrick’s estimate is based from sewer loads, which are probably as accurate a predictor as an enumerator asking someone from Honduras if they would like to talk with a government agent.

Europe and the USA ignore him over Sunday ham

A month ago, while riding on an airplane away from the US-Mexico border, Pope Francis took a question from a reporter regarding whether to build a huge wall along that border to keep Latin Americans out of the United States. The Pope eagerly took the question and answered it at some length, concluding:

Helping a poor nation help itself is a proud moment in Iowa history

“Obama!” they would call out to us in Havana last October, as my buddy Daryl Beall of Fort Dodge and I rambled around the Cuban capital for a long weekend. The Cuban people love the President because he is hope to them.

There they strode through the rain on the same bricks we trod in front of the cathedral in Old Havana, the Obamas, and I wondered what those people must think.

State and local authorities have given a tentative thumbs-up to adding aluminum sulfate — commonly called alum — to Storm Lake in patches to clarify the water and help establish in-lake vegetation.

If this effort works, it will be the first time in my life I have seen clear water in Storm Lake. I have lived here the better part of 58 years.

BY ART CULLEN

Everyone thought the Pope was talking just about Donald Trump. Because, on the airplane back from Mexico a reporter asked what Pope Francis thought about Trump’s plan to build a wall along the border to keep illegal immigrants out.

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Pope Francis replied to the reporter.

Speak now or forever hold your piece. The Storm Lake School District is about to declare dissolution from South School, built in 1922 as Storm Lake High School.

Foutch Brothers, a Kansas City-area development firm, is about to take over the building that covers half a city block. They say it will be developed into “market-rate” apartments, which The City Beautiful sorely needs. They will ask for federal historic tax credits, not low-income housing tax credits as previously proposed.

BY ART CULLEN

Presidential politicians danced around the elephant in a crowded room during the Iowa Caucus promenade. Bernie Sanders assailed Wall Street from the left while Donald Trump and Ted Cruz dumped on immigrants from the right. Nobody in Iowa was talking so much about the Des Moines Water Works lawsuit against Buena Vista, Calhoun and Sac counties, which is and should be the biggest political story in the state.

There’s a reason for that.

BY ART CULLEN

Sara Monroy Huddleston might be in the position of taking one for the team.

The former Storm Lake City Council member — the first Latina in Iowa to be elected to any office — told me Friday night that she intends to run for state representative as a Democrat against incumbent Gary Worthan, a Storm Lake Republican from a district that comprises Buena Vista and Sac counties.